| Shelia Friday: "The latest is that the majority members of the board intend to terminate Dr. Leak this Friday. " Rebuttal: It's against the code of ethics to discuss and release personnel information to the press of a board employee who is still employed and that is not published or FOIA'ed. The lesson learned is that there is a difference in releasing a contract because it is FOIAable and not someone's personal data. The board had nothing to do with the behavior above and it's an embarrassment that one member found it ok to do. Shelia Friday: "At least one of the board members have not evaluated Dr. Leak since she has been on the Board. A second member of the BOE evaluated her only once in the past two years. " Rebuttal: Truth is, before the school board election of April 9, 2013, Dr Morgan and Mrs. Coleman were the only two who have sought to hold the district accountable in superintendent evaluation, to advocate for children and the school district community, to evaluate the school district in a professional data-driven continuous improvement process, with measurable goals, which has not been done in almost two decades. As a board we have not set goals for the district for at least two years, question is HOW DID THEY EVALUATE THE DISTRICT? Truth is, without measurable goals and following a regular process to review student achievement data to ensure continuous improvement, they didn't. Shelia Friday: "It is obvious that some board members have a vendetta against Dr. Leak has 4 years left on her contract. This will be a very costly lawsuit." Rebuttal: The word lawsuit was mentioned about a half dozen times. It is nothing personal about the facts presented to us as board members in closed session. Shelia jumped to conclusions without having all the facts which could only be provided in closed session. Shelia Friday: "This board cancelled the contract of a newly hired HR Director and replaced him with a supporter/friend of Cheryl Coleman and Dr. Morgan. " Rebuttal: The truth is Shelia Friday also replaced the HR Director with our supporter/highly qualified employee. However what she should have said is she supported the best qualified candidate who has an abundance of successful experience as an educational leader with a record of excellence in public education. Come out and meet the interim HR at the next board meeting June 20, 2013. If she is a friend and a supporter of ours then she's a friend and supporter of Shelia because Shelia voted for her just as we did. Shelia Friday: "They concluded that the new HR Director's contract was null and void because it did not include performance standards (however it was clearly stated that the standards would be developed within 3 month of signing the contract)." Rebuttal: Phil Kadner of the Southtown Star in the spring of 2010 referred to the board majority, who refused to do their job in a data-driven-accountability evaluation driven process, at the time as being "One of the most incompetent public bodies in Illinois". How are you going to add something to a contract once it's signed? Coleman was stated in the Southtown Star that, "Performance based contracts need measurable goals according to the Federal Courts that found School District 159 Supt. Ronald Wynn's contract void In the 2011 case of Wynn vs. Board of Education." Shelia Friday: "Assistant Superintendent of Operations. Again the Board as a whole did not decide to create this position. " Rebuttal: The board does not get involved into the day to day operations of the district. We sit as a board and challenge their recommendations for its fiscal, instructional, and educational soundness. What guide did the previous majority board use to select Jerry Thomas Public Relations. However, every position must come before the full board for approval and it is the school board who holds the purse string to finance every position. No hidden public relation positions should be hidden in our budget without the full knowledge and approval of the full school board. For the full board, not to be consulted for approval of any position is unlawful and illegal. Shelia Friday: "Any action that Dr. Leak makes or have taken was at the direction of the board and were in place long before she became superintendent. " Rebuttal: As indicated earlier, the aforementioned statement is untrue. As advocates for children, we have fought against the party of "No to evaluation, No to student achievement, No to denying the full board and community our right to public participation at open public school board forums, freedom of speech, No to lack of public accountability, No to non-transparency and lack of integrity, and student academic performance", a previous board majority who has refused to come to the table to reason together, to talk about evaluation first and its significance, and then do evaluation, to be collaborative, open and transparent about how our money is being spent, listen to everyone, cooperate in being accountable and in performing their role in evaluation. Truth is, they don't know how to evaluate and are unwilling to learn. Dr. David Morgan and Mrs. Cheryl Coleman had nothing to do with the above secretive actions taken by the directions of the previous majority board to hire two additional PR employees. The greatest PR that we can possess as a school district is to improve student achievement levels and to productively and democratically engage the school district community to achieve this goal. The former board majority has never sought to achieve these goals. We had no voice and were not a part of the vote that caused the district to act in this manner. We would have said NO and probably called the police had we known about the previous board majority's directions in the matter of hiring two unknown Public Relations individuals without the full board's knowledge, budget approval for these positions, and consent. Final Rebuttal: Sheila Friday and her board allies, in their ego-centric-divide-and-conquer-what's-in-it-for-me-we-versus-them-mentality still want to hide and ought to be ashamed of themselves for disgracing District 227 by sitting on the school board for the wrong reasons. Since coming to the school board in April 2009, I have noticed how our school district was being slowly but surely destroyed by those sitting on the school board who were not in the best interests of students or the community they have sworn to serve, but in their own best interests. There is no place on a school board for those who are nontransparent, and not in the best interest of children and the whole community. The problem is that they care nothing about doing their jobs in accountability, of evaluating the school district, and to follow a regular process to review student achievement data to insure continuous improvement. They know nothing about principles of continuous improvement in accountability and evaluation, including the use of data and student focus. As the party of No to student achievement, stop complaining about what you don't appear to know or understand and is unwilling to learn, and the essential democratic- transparent- fair- progressive-Best Practices-continuous-academic-improvement-policies that we are now putting in place that you have opposed in the past, still don't appear to understand, and is still unwilling to learn. Consequently, as usual, you can't agree with and still oppose school improvement principles that has moved all successful school districts forward in a positive direction. The policies that you can't agree with today are the same over static-the-hill-around-the-bend-repressive-status-quo-undemocratic-gag rules and so-called "board agreements" that you have promoted as the board majority in the past to re-enslave the board minority and our community . We do not see the world as it is. Rather, we see the world as we are. Can you really see yourself in the mirror and hear yourself when you now have the nerve, the gall, as the minority to project like home movies, to project your own lack and inefficiencies onto others, to lie about lack of accountability and evaluation, speech suppression and who promoted it, your true story of lack of evaluation and accountability in district 227 for decades, complain about transparency, board inclusion, not being informed, or lack of full board and community participation? Please! Cheryl Coleman David Morgan Rich Township High School District 227 20550 South Cicero Avenue Matteson, Illinois | 
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